Obsolete
by Lucy Labrador
Summary: As the result of a battle with Eggman and the rejection of his offers, Shadow has to face his worst nightmare as it comes true. * * Complete. Rated T for violence and mild language.
1. Chapter 1

**Obsolete**

**Chapter 1: The Offer**

**This story is set after Sonic 06.**

Shadow had done well at settling down and living a normal life. He still used his powers at his job but he was earning like everyone else and had somewhere to live, he was stable and contented. He was living in a large two bedroom apartment with Rouge, his best friend and work partner, a girl he loved so much but not so much as a lover but as a friend.

He still worked at GUN, he hadn't tried getting a new job despite the fact that he hated GUN and it's Commander, he just knew that he wouldn't be accepted into any other jobs and if he was it just wouldn't be right for him. It would also mean that he would be separated from Rouge all day and it would be foolish to move from a job with someone to talk to in to a job without someone.

One late Friday afternoon while Shadow was about to go on his lunch break he was called to one of the command rooms, this meant that there was some type of emergency. When he arrived him the room he was briefed on the situation by The Commander. "There's a large vessel headed towards station square, we have reasons to believe that it belongs to Eggman." The Commander said solemnly.

"What are those reasons?" Shadow asked, he sounded as though he was in a foul mood.

"Isn't it obvious, if there is a large ship heading towards station square on a day like this then it's most likely something to do with Eggman, he's the only person who would do this." The Commander said irritably. Shadow sighed and rolled his eyes.

"I'm on it." Shadow said and turned to leave.

"Shadow, do you want my help?" Rouge offered before he could walk out of the door. Shadow shook his head.

"If it's Eggman then… no. He's too easy to deal with." Shadow said plainly without turning to look at her. He then left the room in silence. Soon after he was seen leaving the building and heading towards Station Square at top speed using his jet shoes to propel himself towards the city faster than the speed of sound.

As he arrived at the main area of Station Square, buildings and streets started to become shadowed as though there was some kind of eclipse happening or a large dark cloud had covered the sun. Shadow looked up to see the large vessel. "Hmph definitely Eggman." Shadow grumbled.

None of the citizens were bothered, one of them yelled, "Aww, this is like the third time this week." and went inside one of the nearby sky scrapes. No one was afraid, they all knew that either Sonic or Shadow or at least someone would defeat Eggman before anybody got hurt, it was how it always turned out.

Shadow got out one of his chaos emeralds and performed Chaos Control in order to get inside in time. Eggman had made countless and various models of large ships but each one had the cockpit or control room in roughly the same place so Shadow found the predictable evil genius within thirty seconds. "You're going to pay dearly for what you've done!" Shadow yelled viciously.

"What have I done? I've not done anything yet!" Eggman exclaimed while sitting at his seat in the middle of the large control panel and computer screens.

"You made GUN send me out on an urgent mission… during my lunch break!" Shadow growled at the same time as his stomach did. He looked furious. "If you thought I was grumpy before… you haven't even seen what I'm like while I'm hungry." he hissed and narrowed his eyes.

"Okay Shadow, calm down. I wasn't going to hurt anyone or do anything bad… this was all just a ways to lure you in." Eggman explained sinisterly.

"Continue your attempt to ambush me and I'll snap your neck in two." Shadow snarled.

"This isn't an ambush." the scientist chuckled. Shadow looked interested. "I'm giving you an offer. Work for me to help me take over the world and you won't have to work for GUN again, also, you'll have anything you want because you'll rule the world with me."

"No." Shadow gave the simple answer.

"What!? But I need your power Shadow, it's incredible, why can't I use it!?" he exclaimed sounding fed up.

"Because it's mine! My power!" Shadow snapped.

"No, GUN's power." Eggman commented. Shadow sent a chaos spear that broke part of the support on the bottom of the chair. The stunned scientist fell to the floor.

"I belong to no one, and certainly not you." Shadow said and pointed and angry finger at him.

"That's just the hunger talking, come on." Eggman said nervously while getting up off the floor. "It'll be okay, you won't work for me, you'll work with me."

Shadow sighed and shook his head as though he had heard it all before. "Chaos control!" he yelled. There was a large flash but Shadow hasn't seemed to have gone anywhere, he was still in the ship.

"Shadow, where did you transport my ship to?" Eggman asked nervously.

"I suggest you use one of your emergency escape pods." Shadow said monotonously. "Chaos-"

Eggman made a dash out of the room as Shadow's body began to glow red. "-Blast!" The whole ship began to explode and disintegrate bit by bit, the fire and bangs following Eggman as he ran.

Shadow performed chaos control again, he was back in Station Square like before. He gazed up at the sky at what looked like a comet burning in the atmosphere of the earth, never to be seen again., but is wasn't a comet, it was Eggman's ship. Shadow then held his wrist up to his mouth. "Mission complete." he said and headed back to GUN HQ with his fists at his sides looking miserable and irritated, like he could snap any second.

When he arrived back in the command room, he unexpectedly got a sudden and tight hug from Rouge. "Oh Shadow, you're okay." she said sounding distressed as she hugged him.

"No big surprise there. Like always, it was nothing." Shadow said. "In fact it was easier than most times, it was like he was just asking for it."

"Well, I can understand your disappointment Shadow, but don't worry, we have another mission for you now." The Commander said.

"Excuse me!?" Shadow said looking at him furiously. Rouge broke away from Shadow, knowing that he had gotten angry for me. "I have a lunch break now. There is a large pizza with my name on it." Shadow hissed. "And I'm not going anywhere until I've had it."

"You missed your lunch break while doing the mission, the pizza will have to wait." The Commander said firmly. Shadow looked at him with pure hatred. "Here is the information, now go and complete your next mission before I punish you." The Commander threatened. Shadow's face expression was livid, he snatched the piece of paper with the details on and stormed out of the room.

"He is not going to go easy on anyone who gets in his way on that mission, he skipped breakfast today." Rouge said sounding concerned.

Shadow came through the main door of HQ again two hours later he looked just as annoyed as he did when he left. All soldiers and workers at the place avoided him at all costs, he appeared to be so angry, he could break someone's leg if they got in his way. The grumpy hedgehog made his way back to the command room to report back his progress. After ten minutes of discussion, Shadow was dismissed for his break.

"Finally." he grumbled as he left the room. "It's time to go and get that pizza." he said and left the building feeling determined to get a takeaway pizza for his lunch.

Meanwhile Eggman was entering the Space Colony ARK in an escape pod, he climbed out of it sounding as though he was out of breath. "I'm glad I was able to get here after all of this time. If Shadow was planning on killing me then he shouldn't have put my ship so close to the ARK. I should be safe here for the time being. All I need to do is gather materials to build a ship or find some kind of abandoned space vessel to fly me home." Eggman said to himself.

He made his way into the main corridors and found an old abandoned lab. "Oh, this must be the place where Shadow was made. Pretty pathetic compared to the labs I have." Eggman said in disgust as he walked inside and looked at the old fashioned equipment.

He began fiddling with old technology left behind and looking through the files and what was stored in the cupboards. Then there was a look of glee and triumph on his face as he found the top secret and most important pieces of information from Project Shadow.

Several hours later he left with what he needed for his next evil scheme.

**Lucy Labrador**


	2. Chapter 2

**Obsolete**

**Chapter 2: Shadowed Figure**

Several months passed and Shadow had an easy time at work. Eggman didn't show up at all to cause trouble or give Shadow any missions, only amateur criminals or people in trouble. Unlike before when Shadow would be waiting and counting down the minutes until his breaks, he was now so bored with no more missions most of his day consisted of breaks. He was bored out of his mind, he was being paid to sit down and do nothing which was no good since he was getting paid less for the less work he was doing which wasn't his fault.

One late Monday evening, while Shadow was doing overtime to make up for the wages lost because of his lack of activity, sitting in the staffroom, he was called to the command room because of an emergency. "Finally some action! I was just about ready to quit!" Shadow yelled.

The eager hedgehog burst into the command room in excitement. "What's the mission!?" he exclaimed.

"Someone is infiltrating a weapon storage facility in station square." The Commander said solemnly. "We have no idea who but we know that they must be a threat, it is known that a very useful weapon is held there and that if it gets into the wrong hands there could be dire consequences."

"What is the weapon?" Shadow asked. There was a pause, it looked as though The Commander didn't want to say it.

"A chaos emerald." The Commander sighed.

"Hmph, it annoys me so much when you don't want to tell me these things." Shadow said with hatred and left the room in hurry to go and stop the unknown criminal. He ran to station square in order to get to the weapon storage facility and retrieve the emerald and/or catch the criminal before the damage could be done.

The sun was setting and was very low in the sky when he left HQ and it was pitch black when Shadow arrived, apart from street lights illuminating the streets. Shadow jumped through the smashed window of the old building in which the weapons were stored in. It wasn't a high tech and fancy building as it had to be indistinct, a place where no one would guess the weapons to be. But someone now knew and Shadow had a feeling that it was to do with the chaos emerald.

He went down the stairs of the building, the weapons were stored in the basement underground, behind an old wooden door was a large metal security door and someone had managed to blast through it. Shadow ran through the door to see the chaos emerald on a stand in the corner of the room, he turned to run to it grab it but a dark blur raced past it and it was gone. Shadow turned around and at the door he could see the silhouette of a figure that was roughly his size. It wasn't human and it was most likely someone who could harness chaos energy which was how they knew the chaos emerald was there.

Shadow sent a chaos spear at the unknown their but there was a flash and it was reflected. Shadow leapt towards this powerful creature but before he could get to it, there was another flash, a brighter on and it was gone.

Shadow looked to the top of the stairs and the figure was there, standing tall and mighty, his outline was clearer as it was shown in the dim light of the moon that was shining through the window that had been smashed through. He grit his teeth in anger and frustration and sent another spear, it hit the wall behind the figure, it had dodged. This adversary was a lot more prepared and able than the usual that Shadow came across during his work hours.

Shadow rocketed up the stairs in order to get a hold of this criminal, this was getting on his nerves. The frustrated hedgehog managed to get a hold of the creature and pushed him against the wall. This was when he got up close to it and managed to look into it's deep red eyes. Shadow felt his skin go white, he felt as though his life was being drained from him, he was in deep shock. The stunned hedgehog was out of it, he couldn't take in what he had just seen, he stepped back away from the creature and looked at it's body up and down.

There was a sinister chuckle as Shadow stood in shock. "My master warned me about you." he said in a voice that sounded masculine and so similar to Shadow's own. Shadow began to sweat with fear and tension.

"How!? Who is your master!?" Shadow exclaimed desperately.

"I can't tell you that but you may know one day. See you next time." he teased and leapt out of the window, leaving Shadow paralysed in shock and fear.

Rouge got in late that night expecting Shadow to be home, it was so late Shadow's overtime should have ended by now. She walked into the apartment and was caught aback by the silence and darkness, there was no one in unless Shadow were in bed. "Shadow?" Rouge called and went over to his bedroom door. She peaked inside his bedroom but he wasn't there. "Shadow? Where is he?" she asked herself worriedly.

She sat in the living room for several hours, midnight passed Shadow still didn't turn up. Rouge called work to see if he was there, he wasn't. She began to panic, Shadow always came home, there was obviously something wrong for him not to turn up without notice. Just as she was about to got out and look for him, she looked out of the window to see him walking down the street and towards the building. She sighed with relief but wondered why he was taking his time.

She went out into the hall to see him, when she saw him she gave a slight gasp. He was walking somewhat like a zombie, a look of slight shock on his face but apart from that he was emotionless. "Shadow!? What's wrong?" Rouge exclaimed. Shadow ignored her, walking inside and sat on the sofa. "Shadow!" Rouge yelled again feeling her heart going, there was something wrong with him.

Shadow looked at her, the look of fear in his eyes. "R-rouge. My worst nightmare has come true." Shadow struggled to say, it sounded as though his words were nearly caught in his throat.

"What?" Rouge asked also becoming afraid herself, if there was something that the fearless ultimate life form was afraid of it had to be something bad.

"I think… since I'm a creation of man and it's been over fifty years since my creation… I've become… Obsolete." Shadow said and swallowed hard. "I saw… something awful during my last mission today."

"What did you see?" Rouge asked.

"I saw… me." Shadow breathed. "Someone's gotten a hold of my DNA and made a brand new ultimate life form. I'm doomed… and depending on who made it, so it the world." he said sounding traumatised.

**Lucy Labrador**


	3. Chapter 3

**Obsolete**

**Chapter 3**

That morning, Shadow found himself unable to go into work, he was still too traumatised. He hadn't even slept that night, he sat on the sofa all night and hardly moved a muscle. Rouge stayed by him for comfort until she fell asleep with her head on his lap. Shadow hardly noticed the fact that half of her body was on him.

At 8 in the morning there was a loud and angry sounding knock on the door, someone was desperate to see either Shadow or Rouge. Rouge shot up from Shadow's lap, she was woken up with a start by the noise. Seeing that Shadow still wouldn't move Rouge went to open the door.

Shadow turned around to watch Rouge open the door, he sunk down and half hid on the sofa, only the top of his head peeking at the door to see who it was. Rouge opened it, without hesitation the visitor said. "Is Shadow here?!"

Shadow stopped hiding once he realised that it was only Sonic. "H-hi Faker." Shadow said sounding nervous and apprehensive.

"What were you up to last night!?" Sonic yelled angrily and walked over to the sofa and stood in front of it, looking at Shadow, standing with his fists out. Shadow found himself unable to speak, his mind was going back to that night when he saw himself, only better. Seeing that there would be no answer from Shadow, Sonic snapped at him. "Shadow! Why were you up to no good last night?" Sonic said through gritted teeth.

Shadow's eyes widened, he knew that he wasn't 'up to no good' but he did know who was. "Why did you do this to me!?" Sonic yelled and pointed to his shoulder, there was a healing wound there, it was covered in dried blood.

"It… wasn't me." Shadow said in a low voice.

"It was you Shadow! I saw you! I spoke to you! You can't deny it!" Sonic yelled. Shadow looked even more miserable, sounding frustrated he spoke again.

"It… wasn't… me." he said again through gritted teeth.

"Is that all you can say to defend yourself? This is low for you Shadow, what's happened to you? You used to be cool. Just fess up so we can get this over with." Sonic scoffed.

"IT WASN'T ME!" Shadow yelled viciously, but he stayed in his seat, he then looked down at his knees and put his hands to the sides of his head looking stressed out.

"Sonic, he's telling the truth." Rouge stated honestly.

"How do you know? Was he here all night?" Sonic asked still sounding angry.

"No." Rouge said sadly. "He got here at about midnight." she added.

"This happened to me before midnight." Sonic said while pointing to his wound. "And I know it was you, you spoke to me Shadow, I saw your face! How can you deny something you've obviously done!?"

"Because I didn't do it!" Shadow yelled in pure anger, he picked up a mug from the coffee table in front of him and chucked it at Sonic, the blue hedgehog managed to dodge to it his the wall and smashed. After that Shadow went to hiding himself in his hands and looking down to avoid eye contact.

"Sonic, he is telling the truth. Shadow saw something last night. He look truly traumatised when he got back. I know he's telling the truth!" Rouge exclaimed. Sonic looked unconvinced.

"You hurt people last night Shadow… I thought you were past that." Sonic said sounding disappointed as though he hadn't even listened to what Rouge had just said.

"I _am_ past that!" Shadow said while hiding himself away. "Just leave me alone, if you're not willing to listen to what I have to say then just leave." he growled. Then he realised something. "People were hurt?" he looked up at Sonic and asked.

"Don't give me the clueless act!" Sonic yelled.

"What happened!?" Shadow yelled desperately. Sonic saw that Shadow was being sincere.

"Shadow… can't you remember? Is this another amnesia thing? Did you forget what you did?" Sonic asked. Shadow shook his head and looked at Sonic angrily. "I think you did. Well, Shadow. I'll tell you what you did. Now, it wasn't as serious as some of the stuff you've done in the past but it was pretty bad." Sonic said arrogantly.

"Shut up Faker." Shadow growled. Sonic wasn't listening.

"It was dark since it was late at night, you had an emerald, you passed me in the street, I called for you as you ran past me, you turned back to me, you glared at me." Sonic began to explain, Shadow gave him the death stare. "Just like that." he pointed out. "I asked what you were up to… you made it so obvious, you were off to see Eggman, you're working for him again." Sonic hissed angrily.

Shadow shook with anger, where he sat, while looking down again, what was the point in turning down Eggman's offer all of those months ago when he was getting accused of working for him now? Sonic continued. "I tried to stop you, tried to talk some sense into you but you weren't taking any of it. We got into a bit of a fight, that's how I got this-" Sonic pointed to his shoulder wound. "You ended it with a chaos blast and you left, a few people nearby got knocked out by the blow but there were no serious injuries."

Shadow looked at Sonic again in anger.

"So?" Shadow asked, expecting more to be said.

"I don't know, perhaps the use of so much chaos energy caused you to pass out, you forgot it all and returned home." Sonic guessed.

"No. I'll tell you what happened Sonic, because I understand it all now." Shadow said shakily and angrily. "Eggman has made a new ultimate life form that is working for him. He used my DNA to create a new and more powerful ultimate life form, one that's better than me." Shadow said, there was fear in his voice.

"What?!" Sonic hissed in disbelief.

"I know because I came across this creature on my mission last night. I hardly remember what happened after that… it was shocked out of my memory." Shadow said breathlessly.

"I think you slowly walked yourself home… I saw you walking in the street on your way up last night." Rouge explained.

"Thing is Shadow… I can feel the chaos energy coming from you, enough for you to be in the possession of the emerald." Sonic said, there was still a trace of anger in his voice.

Shadow got out his emerald, it was the green one, the one he always had. "Was this the one that the new faker had in his hand?" Shadow asked grimly. Sonic's eyes widened. "Exactly. Now get out." Shadow said harshly and pointed to the door.

"Aww, come on Shadow." Sonic said nervously. "I'm sorry-"

"Don't even try it, leave now!" Shadow yelled.

"Well I guess I deserved it… call me up when you want to help me sort out Eggman's new plot to take over the world." Sonic said sadly and headed for the door.

"Hmph, you will not go and do any such thing. This is my business Sonic." Shadow turned around to face Sonic and said.

"Can I at least help?" Sonic asked.

"Yes, but you're not leading this operation." Shadow said spitefully. "I am."

"Yeah, since this thing is like, your brother, so it's your business." Sonic joked. Shadow then sent a chaos spear in anger, it just brushed against Sonic's wound and reopened it.

"This thing is not my brother!" Shadow yelled and bared his fangs. "It's my update…" he said shamefully. "I'm obsolete." he added and looked to the floor. "The inevitable has happened… I'm doomed."

"Whoa Shadow, just because someone supposedly bigger and better than you has turned up, doesn't mean it's the end of you." Sonic said. "You're amazing!"

"Sonic… when you got that old video game console of yours a year ago, what did you think of it?" Shadow asked Sonic.

"Umm, I thought it was amazing."

"And when the new version was released, when it was updated what did you do to that console?" Shadow asked monotonously.

"I threw it out." Sonic said then widened his eyes. "Shadow, you're not comparing yourself to a machine, are you? You're not a machine that can be thrown out and replaced!" Sonic yelled.

"Hmph. I'm not a machine like that gaming console of yours… but I am a human creation like the video game console of yours and while I cannot be thrown out, I can be defeated because this new ultimate life form will be stronger than me." Shadow said nervously.

"Shadow… we'll sort this out. You'll be okay." Sonic said softly and forced a smile.

"Sonic, you've fought me before, you know how stubborn I am and this new faker will be even worse than me." Shadow warned. "It's over." he sighed and went to his bedroom to sulk.

**Lucy Labrador**


	4. Chapter 4

**Obsolete**

**Chapter 4**

Rouge called work to say that neither her or Shadow would be there that day. Her and Sonic discussed what they knew and what they could do to help the situation but it was no good without Shadow. "It's been long enough. I'm going to get him from the bedroom, he's had enough time to himself." Rouge said and got up from the sofa.

Sonic waited for Rouge to come back with Shadow but she came back alone looking panicked. "Shadow's gone and his window's open." Rouge said worriedly. Sonic sighed and ran to the door.

"Should I go and look for him?" Sonic asked.

"You won't need to look for him, you'll just have to retrieve him… I know where he's gone." Rouge said putting her face in her hands.

"He hasn't gone and tried to defeat the faker, has he?" Sonic asked. Rouge nodded.

"It's the only thing he could have done." she groaned. "Let's go."

The two of them ran down the stairs and across the street. Sonic rushed ahead and Rouge stopped on the spot. "Sonic, wait!" she yelled and pointed to the building she had stopped by. Sonic walked back looking confused. "He's here." Rouge said and sighed with relief, looking through the window of the pizza place.

The two of them walked inside to see that Shadow was the only person there eating. "He's a bit of a comfort eater." Rouge whispered to Sonic before Shadow could notice the two of them. The depressed hedgehog was stuffing his face full of pizza, he finished off the last slice.

The waiter came to his table. "Would you like thirds sir?" he asked. Sonic couldn't help but snigger, that is when Shadow looked up and saw the two of them entering the quiet pizza place.

"Hmph, yes." he said to the waiter who was also the owner of the shop. "And another drink." Shadow added and folded his arms. "Also, I don't think I'll be eating alone." he looked straight at Sonic and Rouge who were slowly walking towards him.

Rouge smiled at him awkwardly while she and Sonic got chairs and sat down at the table with Shadow. The grumpy hedgehog just sat with his arms folded and turned his head to the side looking miserable. "Shadow…" Rouge began to say sympathetically.

"Save it!" Shadow snapped and looked at her with a death glare. "Nothing either of you can say will make me feel any different, I know my fate and I'm going to face it. The best you can do now is enjoy your last moments with me." he said sadly. "I should have known better than to make any types of positive relationship with anyone. I'm sorry." he added shamefully.

"Shadow, stop acting like this! You're not going to die!" Sonic exclaimed.

"I certainly hope he's not going to die, he's my best customer!" the owner of the small cafe exclaimed while he served the next large pizza.

Shadow began to dig into it without a word or hesitation, picking up the first slice and taking his first bite. "Shadow, how can you eat this fast if this is your third pizza?" Sonic asked looking astonished. "I thought _I_ ate a lot."

Shadow didn't say anything. "He has a big appetite, I swear he spends half of his wages on food." Rouge said seriously.

"Well go on! The food's on me!" Shadow swallowed his food and said, he pointed to the pizza.

"But… Shadow, I don't have any idea about the salt or fat content and it looks really greasy…" Rouge said sounding anxious.

"Just forget about your weight for one meal!" Shadow snapped. "I don't know what's up with you girls, you're just fine the way you are."

All of them tucked into the meal, Shadow ate half of the pizza and Sonic and Rouge ate the other half of it between them, Shadow was faster at eating than they were. "The sad thing about this place is that there's no bathroom here." Shadow said looking uncomfortable.

"What!? Who would run a restaurant, where they serve drinks and not have a bathroom!" Sonic exclaimed as the owner came back in the room.

"Someone who only has one customer! It would cost a fortune to install a bathroom when I only have one customer!" he exclaimed. "Here is the bill, and again, a ten percent discount to my best customer." he added cheerfully.

Shadow delved into his quills to find the money needed. "Here." Shadow said and passed him the notes of currency and then got up to leave. When they all turned to leave the window smashed and Shadow cried out in pain. Sonic and Rouge turned to him, there was a chaos spear lodged in his shoulder. The spear faded and Shadow put his hand on his wound. As Shadow was hissing and trembling with pain, his doppelganger walked through the door.

"Dude! What is it with the shoulder!?" Sonic exclaimed angrily.

Now the three of them could get a close look at him, it was light and he wasn't hiding anything. He looked just like Shadow but he was wearing different clothes, his inhibitor rings were silver and his shoes were grey and red instead or white and red, they were also more streamlined. "Who are you!?" Shadow yelled in fear.

"Isn't it obvious? I am Shadow The Hedgehog." he said sinisterly.

"No, he is Shadow!" Sonic yelled and pointed to his friend. "You're just a faker!"

"Says the faker." the new hedgehog scoffed. Sonic made fists in anger.

"Look, can we do this at a different time? I have a full stomach." Shadow said nervously. "I can't fight like this."

The new Shadow began to chuckle sinisterly. "That is where I have an advantage, while you have to perform all of those bodily functions… I don't, I simply have to breathe, nothing else." he said menacingly and confidently. Shadow's ears drooped to the sides of his head in sadness. "And I don't have those emotional problems of yours."

"I don't have emotional problems!" Shadow yelled in anger and distress and charged towards his adversary with his fist out. The distraught hedgehog tried to punch his rival but his fist was caught easily. The stronger hedgehog got a hold of poor Shadow's fist and held him still. "Please-"

Shadow was blasted back with a small chaos blast which was big enough to simply hurt Shadow only. "He can control the strength and direction of his chaos blasts." Sonic breathed. "Our Shadow can't do that."

Shadow hit the wall at the back of the wall where the shop owner was standing in fear. "Are you sure you haven't got a bathroom in this place?" Shadow growled while trying to get up off the floor. "Because if there was one it would make this fight a lot easier." he added. The newly made Shadow began to laugh evilly.

"So pathetic." he chuckled. "This is how I come at a real advantage. While you're off doing all of that disgusting stuff, I could be killing your friends or taking over the world." he teased spitefully.

"No way, he can hold the pee in with one hand and fight with the other!" Sonic joked he then gave a yelp and jumped to the side as two chaos spears came his way.

"Shut up Faker!" both Shadows yelled.

"Fair enough… you go home tonight and rest. But you must turn up at Eggman's base to meet your fate tomorrow evening." the new Shadow offered. "That should give you enough time to rest and…" he made a disgusted look. "If you don't turn up by then, I'll come for you and innocent people may be hurt in the process." he hissed and disappeared with chaos control.

Sonic and Rouge slowly walked over to Shadow who was in a heap on the floor, laying against the back wall amongst a pile of wall plaster. "This is the end of me…" Shadow trembled while trying to get up. Rouge helped him up while he had his right hand on his left shoulder, his white glove becoming strained with green thick, black arms blood.

"Let's get you home Shadow, this isn't the end of you, once you've had a nice 'comfort break' and a long sleep you'll feel better and you'll be able to fight." Rouge said sympathetically while putting her arm around him to comfort him.

Shadow cringed at her words. "He's right, I'm pathetic. I don't deserve to live, I'm no ultimate life form." Shadow said sadly.

"We'll see Shadow, I swear you're better than this, I know you're better than this." Sonic said optimistically. "You _are_ the ultimate life form, you can defeat anything!"

"Yes, anything _but_ my… update." Shadow grumbled. "Like I said earlier, all I can do is enjoy the time I have left." he sighed sadly and they made their way back to the flat.

**Lucy Labrador**


	5. Chapter 5

**Obsolete **

**Chapter 5**

It was the late afternoon that same day and Shadow was sleeping heavily in his bed, he had his wounds cleaned and bandaged. Rouge was sat at his bedside stroking his head and chest fur, Shadow had needed a lot of soothing to get to sleep. Sonic was sitting in the kitchen on guard in case the new Shadow were to come out of nowhere at random with a surprise attack.

Rouge came out of the bedroom and into the kitchen. "He's fast asleep, he won't be waking up for a while now." Rouge said softly and sat down at the table with him.

"We _are_ going to help him right?" Sonic asked.

"Yes, Shadow can't do this alone. He'll get seriously hurt if he does." Rouge said worriedly. "And past experiences have taught us that two people with the same powers fighting does not work, they'll be in stalemate for hours."

Sonic nodded in agreement. "So we need to work together." he added.

Shadow managed to sleep through the day and night, he was completely refreshed and his wound was healed. He got out of bed and walked over to the kitchen to see Rouge and Sonic. "How long was I asleep?" Shadow asked, he was just in his socks and bandage.

"About 20 hours." Rouge said.

"So how long do we have left?" he asked, no longer looking tired a groggy but slightly panicked and awake.

"I'll class the _evening_ as about 6 o'clock… so… roughly ten hours." Rouge said. Shadow put his hands to his head looking stressed. "I have ten hours of my life left." he groaned. "Why didn't you wake me up?"

"Because you don't have ten hours left Shadow, you have a lot longer than that. You won't die, we won't let you die. We're going to help you defeat this monster." Sonic said with determination.

"You can't, you'll get yourselves hurt and that's not fair since it's only supposed to be me who dies, not you two." Shadow complained.

"No Shadow, if this creature isn't defeated then everyone will suffer, Eggman will be able to take over the world!" Sonic exclaimed. Shadow looked even more miserable. "Which is why we called for help. Knuckles and Tails will be here soon."

"Great, you're dragging more of your friends into certain death, well done Sonic!" Shadow said and gritted his teeth.

"Shadow, just get yourself ready, have a shower or something, freshen up and we'll talk about it." Rouge said. Shadow sighed and walked over to the bathroom which was next door to his bedroom.

At midday the three of them had a light lunch to keep them going but not too much to weigh them down like Shadow had done himself before with the Pizza. Shadow then sat at the window, staring out of it silently. There was a knock on the door, Rouge went to answer it. Shadow didn't bother to look at who it might be he continued to stare out of the window. "Hi boys, come in." Rouge said cheerfully.

Hearing this, Shadow knew that it must have been Knuckles and Tails as he had been told that they would be coming over. "Is Shadow ready?" Knuckles asked as the two of them walked in.

"He's ready to talk but I don't think he's ready to fight." Rouge said and shut the door behind them.

"Shadow, come on we need to discuss this!" Sonic called from the kitchen table. The living room and kitchen was all one big room dividing off by different wallpaper and floor tiles so Sonic could call from the kitchen without an effort to Shadow who was sulking in the living room.

"No. There is nothing to discuss. I'm going to die today, what is there to discuss about it?" Shadow asked spitefully.

"You're not going to die!" Sonic exclaimed getting frustrated with Shadow. The dark hedgehog continued to sulk, he looked even more miserable. "We're going to help you so you won't die."

"No, you're not helping me. None of you are helping me. This is my business and I don't want you all getting hurt or killed because of me." Shadow said plainly. "So the three of you go home." he said, referring to Sonic, Knuckles and Tails. "You're not helping me!" he yelled.

"Fine, we're not helping you." Sonic said all of a sudden as though he had given up at trying to convince Shadow. "_You're_ helping _us_." he said mischievously. Shadow's eyes widened. "We've already come up with rough idea of what we're going to do, and we'll need your help in this."

Shadow gave Sonic the death glare and walked over to the table, he sat down and crossed his arms looking irritated. "So boys, what's the plan?" Rouge asked and sat down at the table with them.

"Knuckles is going to take the master emeralds along with him and use it to control the creation's use of chaos energy. Judging by how much we've fought Shadow in the past, we know that this ultimate life form will be useless without chaos energy." Sonic began to explain.

"What?!" Shadow said, baring his canines.

"Sorry Shadow." Sonic said while clearing his throat nervously while Shadow stared at him in hatred. "Moving on… since this is Eggman we're dealing with there will most likely be some kind of technology involved somehow, even if it's just in the shoes he has, so if there's something Tails can do to help us in that area then that's what he'll do."

Tails nodded. "I'm sure I'll be able to disable any technology he's using to make himself more able to fight." Tails said confidently.

"Without those shoes he won't be able to run as fast as me…" Sonic began. "…because we all know from our fights in the past with Shadow-"

"Shut up Faker!" Shadow yelled, he looked furious.

"I'll be along Shadow fighting since I'm the only person who is fast enough to keep up with him apart from Shadow, and of course, Knuckles if you feel it's necessary you join in with a knuckle sandwich or too." Sonic said professionally give knuckles a smirk. Shadow just scoffed and looked to the side again.

"What will I do?" Rouge asked.

"You can stand and… give Shadow moral support." Sonic said dismissively. Rouge's mouth gaped open in shock, then she looked angry.

"Aren't I good for anything? Can't I perhaps steal any emeralds Eggman has?" Rouge asked sounding annoyed.

"Perhaps…" Sonic said getting worried about Rouge's increasing anger levels.

"So, shall we get this over and done with?" Knuckles asked.

"That's… up to Shadow… whenever he's ready." Sonic said and looked over to him with concern. "Are you ready Shadow?"

"Shut up Faker, of course I'm ready." Shadow snapped.

"Okay, let's gather together what we'll need a get going." Sonic said eagerly. "Let's all meet at Tail's workshop in an hour!" he announced. Knuckles and Tails left, the other three stayed inside.

"Sonic, don't you have things you'll be needing to do?" Shadow asked sounding aggravated.

"No… oh, have I overstayed my welcome?" Sonic asked nervously. Shadow was about to answer but Rouge but in.

"No Sonic, of course you haven't, you've been a great help." Rouge said. "So Shadow, what do you think we should do for the next hour?" she asked.

"Hmm, I think I should write my will-"

"No Shadow! You're not going to die!" both Sonic and Rouge yelled. Shadow scowled at the both of them.

"You'll regret saying all of this when I'm dead." Shadow grumbled. His hard look changed to a softer one then he began trembling. Rouge ran over to comfort him, she stood n front of him and put her arms around him, she would his shoulder to cry on. "I'm sorry that I have to leave you all like this…" he sobbed, his words were muffled by Rouge's shoulder.

This was the first time either of them had seen Shadow cry.

An hour later the group found themselves meeting together at Tail's workshop, they would be getting to Eggman's base by plane, they wanted Shadow to conserve all of his energy for the fight and not use it all to teleport everyone to the fight before it had even started. Tails was driving at the front, Knuckles and Rouge sat in the back seat and the Master Emerald was stored in the very back of the plane. Sonic and Shadow rode on the wings of the plane. Shadow was silent all of the way through the journey there, he still looked as miserable as before.

They arrived at Eggman's base roughly twenty minutes later. "This is it, the end of Eggman's latest scheme." Sonic said confidently when they had landed. Shadow didn't even bother to make a remark about how it would also be the end of him or anything of the sort, he had given up on trying to convince his friends that this would be the end.

The five of them walked inside, Knuckles carrying the Master Emerald and Tails carrying a piece of technology that looked similar to a control panel. Shadow had his emerald and Sonic had his. Rouge was ready to sneak away and steal any other emeralds Eggman would be hiding in his base.

They walked inside the tall dark building that was on a far off abandoned island. Shadow felt his heart racing, he had never been this afraid he was adamant that this would be the end of him.

It was awfully quiet, as if Eggman was waiting for them, as if he wanted them to come. The five of them continued walking to find the two villains. It wasn't long before they did find them, in a large circular room, a perfect place for battle. "You're early." the new Shadow said sounding malicious. "I guess that makes up for the fact that you brought your friends along, something I didn't say you could do."

"You never said anything about my friends, you didn't encourage it nor forbid it." Shadow hissed.

"Are you afraid of the power of teamwork?" Sonic teased.

"No, I can take you all on." the new Shadow said, his voice sounded just like Shadow's only a little more sinister, like he had no compassion for anything. "I'll be able to destroy you all in one shot, Chaos BLAST!"

**Lucy Labrador**


	6. Chapter 6

**Obsolete**

**Chapter 6**

The group stood in shock and fear, Chaos Blast was an attack that they wouldn't be able to dodge. Nothing happened, no blasts came, no explosions, no injuries. "What?" the new Shadow said. "Why didn't that work?" he asked.

"Shadow! I've disabled his use of chaos energy, he's pretty much open now!" Knuckles exclaimed.

Shadow took the chance and charged towards his opponent, a chaos spear formed in his hand. "Chaos-" Shadow stopped in mid-sentence. Sonic, Knuckles and Tails all cringed. Shadow fell down to his knees clutching his crotch. "You sick bastard… why would you do that?" Shadow hissed in pain.

"Right, that's it! You were fast enough to hit Shadow in time but will you be fast enough to hit me!?" Sonic yelled. He immediately went to one of his highest speeds but he didn't go straight for the more powerful Shadow, he bounced off of the walls several times to throw his enemy off-target and make it harder to guess when Sonic was going to hit.

Sonic finally went in for the hit and kicked him in the face then punched him in the stomach but then keeled back in pain. "AH! Do you have the hardest six pack or what!?" Sonic cried out and held his hurt hand with his fine one.

The stronger Shadow just gave a "Hmph." and punched Sonic back right in the face. "That's what you get for hurting me." he said spitefully. Sonic fell to the floor with a bloody nose.

"Hard six pack?" Shadow said questioningly while recovering from his hit between the legs.

"No, eight pack." his doppelganger said arrogantly. Shadow lunged forward while still on his knees and grabbed his doppelganger's ankles, he then gave a strong tug, hoping it would make him fall down. The hedgehog stayed standing, looking down on Shadow ominously. "Don't you have any strength?" he said smugly.

"You… cheater…" Shadow hissed. "Those shoes have electromagnets in them, you're stuck to the floor… you bastard."

"I have just the thing!" Tails exclaimed and pointed his device at the shoes and pressed a button, a sudden and powerful beam shot from it for a split second and the hedgehog plummeted to the floor.

"What happened!?" the new Shadow exclaimed.

"You were using technology to become stronger, that was the wrong thing to use on a team with a techno geek in." Sonic said with an arrogant smirk.

The hedgehog's eyes widened, without his chaos energy and his shoes he was useless. "Hmph, I still have natural strength that I can use to kill you all." he hissed and kicked Shadow in the face.

"That makes it even then!" Knuckles exclaimed and came forward to punch him, while the new Shadow tried to doge the punch coming from the front, Sonic collided with him from the back, the old Shadow who was now on his feet sent a chaos spear at the same time, the enemy was hit with three attacks at the same time and was overwhelmed.

"AHH!" he cried out in pain as he was punched in the ribs, kicked in the back and stabbed in the shoulder. He wobbled to the side holding his shoulder wound and cringing at his spine and rib fractures. "That was nothing…" he trembled, then the wounds seemed to close up and disappear.

"Oh no, not one of those healing things!" Sonic cried out.

"That's just unnatural." Shadow said breathlessly. "I thought that I healed fast!" he exclaimed.

"That's not healing it's regeneration! He's using something!" Tails exclaimed. Shadow narrowed his eyes at his counterpart.

"How do you do it?" Shadow hissed. There was no answer, no verbal answer anyway, Shadow received a firm and sudden kick to the stomach. The hedgehog choked out and fell to the floor, coughing out a splat of blood along the way.

The agonised hedgehog looked up to see his superior walking over to him, he stayed on his knees trembling in pain and clutching his stomach. The dominant hedgehog bent down and grabbed Shadow's throat with one hand and picked the squirming inferior one up. Choking and gasping for air, Shadow squirmed and wriggled to get free. Sonic came up behind the evil fiend to try and free Shadow but it just effortlessly pointed his fist backwards and Sonic ran straight into it and fell to the floor because he had a punch to the face.

"Do you have any compassion?" the restrained Shadow hissed in pain as he struggled to breath and talk out of a throat that was being squeezed closed. "You're basically killing yourself… this could be you one day. Just think about it…" he choked.

Everyone was silent. "It's been fifty years since I was created… and technology has improved by a long shot… what will it be like in fifty years time again?" he asked his determined adversary. "Much better than this and the Robotnik who is in charge then will just make a new ultimate life form."

"Don't try and convince me not to kill you with your pathetic words." the new ultimate life form sneered.

"Well, you're only causing your own death." Shadow said becoming even more desperate for oxygen. "If you kill me now… when a new ultimate life form is made after you… they will just kill you."

"But they won't… this is the best a life form can get, that's why I am called the ultimate life form." The new Shadow said angrily.

"Oh, that's where you're wrong. That's what everyone said about Shadow, even today he's an amazing creation." Sonic said. "But now there's you and everyone will be saying that there can't be any life form better than this, and that you must be the humans race's all time best, but within fifty years… it'll all happen again another breakthrough."

"Don't listen to them Shadow, just kill them all!" Eggman yelled from his large chair he was sitting in at the far end of the room.

While Shadow was dangling in the hand of his superior he managed to swing himself and kick him in the stomach, it didn't affect him at all. "What are you!?" Shadow exclaimed in frustration then his eyes widened. "Tails, shoot that ray of yours at his stomach!" Shadow said, his yelled weren't loud since the new Shadow was squeezing his throat even tighter.

"But it doesn't effect flesh!" Tails exclaimed. "It'll just waste the battery when we can use it for more important things!"

"Just…" Shadow choked, then he was silent, his eyes closed and he fell limp.

"Shadow!" Rouge exclaimed. "Just do what he said!" she screamed at Tails getting tears in her eyes. Tails pointed the device at the stronger life form's abdomen.

It's eyes widened and it froze for a second, then it dropped Shadow t the floor and curled up on the floor himself. On his knees he began to cough up blood. "What's happening to me?" he choked.

"Noooo!" Eggman roared.

Sonic, Knuckles Tails and Rouge ran over to the two Shadows. Rouge tried to bring her Shadow back to consciousness while the three boys watched over the evil one. "It's over, give it up!" Sonic said while looking down on the suffering creature.

"Please… I-it hurts… so much." it begged.

"Oh Shadow, please don't be dead." Rouge panicked.

"Don't be silly, The Ultimate Life Form can't be killed through a simple oxygen starvation…" he rasped with a smirk from the floor, his eyes were beginning to open.

"Oh Shadow, you're okay!" Rouge cried out and she pulled him up and hugged him tightly before he even had a chance to get up himself.

"Ahh! Help me!" the creature was sobbing in agony and vomiting out puddles of blood and then what looked like acid.

"Eggman, what have you done to him?" Sonic asked angrily.

"Okay… I'll admit, this hedgehog isn't pure organic hedgehog…" he said nervously. "He's kind of… a cyborg."

Shadow then began to smirk. "Eggman, when you made this new ultimate life form you forgot when thing." Shadow said triumphantly while getting up off of the floor and standing on his feet.

There was moment of silence. "Love?" Sonic said innocently.

"No Sonic, it isn't love." Shadow snapped at him.

"But every creation is like a child and it needs love-" Sonic tried but Shadow interrupted him.

"YES! Okay, love but he also forgot something else." Shadow retorted. "That it's not good to use technology in your creations because they always end up breaking."

"Oh!" Sonic said with a smile as though he was just got a joke. "But Shadow… this hedgehog isn't broken… he's dying… he's a living thing." Sonic said in distress and looked at the sobbing and suffering hedgehog on the floor.

"Please, just kill me now… this is too much!" he howled in pain. Shadow walked over to it and looked into it's eyes of pain and sorrow.

"I'm… sorry." Shadow said solemnly and without word sent a chaos spear through it's head. It's life immediately ceased. Sonic, Knuckles and Tails stepped back from it, in the background Eggman was retreating.

"Sonic!" Tails yelled and pointed to Eggman as the round man was running for the exit on the far side of the room.

"Shadow!" Sonic yelled but then saw the depressed look on Shadow's face when he looked down at his dead copy. "I'll… go and deal with it myself then." Sonic said nervously. "Come on guys." he said and began to speed down the hall of the door that Eggman had just ran through. Tails and Knuckles followed.

"Hmph. I told you so." Shadow said nonchalantly.

"Told me what?" Rouge asked as she walked up to him.

"I told you one of us would die." he scoffed.

"Umm, that's not what you said Shadow… you said that '_you_' would die." Rouge corrected.

"No, I said that either one of us would." Shadow denied. Rouge sighed and knew Shadow would never admit it even though it was true. "I'll take you home… those three can follow us in Tails' plane later." Shadow said and grabbed onto Rouge.

"Wait! I can't forget this." Rouge said mischievously and ran over to grab the master emerald. "There, I'm ready now. Let's go." she said cheerfully. Shadow sighed and performed chaos control, he looked deeply at his dead copy until his surroundings changed to his home.

"Shadow, are you okay?" Rouge asked sympathetically.

"Hmph, of course I am." Shadow said. "We're done with enough time to get a pizza. Let's go." he added emotionlessly.

After this incident Shadow felt a lot more confident about himself, he had a strong feeling that this could never happen again, he now knew that what Gerald had achieved could not be achieved again and if it could be, nothing better could. It took the addition of technology to make the new ultimate life form stronger which showed that Shadow could never truly become

_**Obsolete**_

**Thank you for reading, please review.**

**Lucy Labrador**


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